The firestorm in New Delhi continues over Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s disclosure that it lobbied in the U.S. for, among many other things, entry to the Indian retail market.

Opposition politicians from the Bharatiya Janata Party are calling it an admission of bribery and the Congress party-led government agreed Wednesday to a judicial probe to look into the matter. The press frenzy over the issue is unrelenting.

But some politicians and journalists in India are trafficking in a dangerous combination of misinformation about how U.S. lobbying works and fundamental inaccuracies about what the giant retailer actually disclosed in recent government filings. That is distracting from what would otherwise be legitimate questions about Wal-Mart’s conduct in India, given its recent disclosure that it is internally investigating potential violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act here.

Advertisement

The BJP has made the case that Wal-Mart’s lobbying in the U.S. to advance its India interests was a shocking revelation, tantamount to bribery. But lobbying is a legal and routine practice in the U.S. Indeed, it’s one that many Indian companies have engaged in over the years.

And it doesn’t appear to have been controversial in the past, even with the BJP. In October 2002, for instance, when a BJP-led government was in power in India, state-run steel company Steel Authority of India hired lobbyists in Washington at the law firm Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, official U.S. lobbying records show. It isn’t clear what the company was lobbying for. A Steel Authority of India spokeswoman had no immediate comment.

Also consider the range of Indian companies that have spent millions of dollars in recent years to advance their interests, legitimately. Since 2003, NASSCOM, a trade group that represents Indian technology companies, has spent at least $2.95 million on U.S. lobbying. That includes lobbying this year on “international technology and immigration issues,” according to an Oct. 22 lobbying disclosure filing.

Since 2009, Reliance Industries Ltd. has spent $1.88 million on U.S. lobbying, while construction and engineering major Larsen & Toubro Ltd. spent $1.2 million between 2005 and 2008. Other Indian companies that have hired registered U.S. lobbyists include outsourcing specialists Patni Computer Systems and Tata Consultancy Services, drug-makers Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, and even the country’s Carpet Export Promotion Council (which was lobbying on ‘international trade in hand-made carpets.’)

The Government of India itself has hired lobbyists in Washington for several years to advance its case on a variety of matters in Washington, especially the civil nuclear energy pact with the U.S. That has never created a ruckus in Parliament before.

Som Mittal, NASSCOM’s president, said the debate over Wal-Mart’s lobbying “has become political” and said there’s nothing special about companies advocating their agenda to the U.S. Congress, influential think tanks or others in Washington. “They ensure our viewpoint gets represented over there,” Mr. Mittal said. He said NASSCOM’s priorities include making sure immigration policies in the U.S. treat Indian technology workers fairly.

BJP spokesmen couldn’t be reached for comment. But a BJP official said the party’s stand against Wal-Mart’s lobbying is legitimate because “lobbying itself isn’t an established practice in India” and “given the context of scams and scandals having come to light in the past several years, the question of anything influencing decision-making will create a furor.”

The BJP official added that Wal-Mart deserves heightened scrutiny given its disclosure about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the “strong emotions related to FDI” in India. The BJP, of course, led an unsuccessful attempt in Parliament recently to undermine the government’s September decision to allow international retailers like Wal-Mart to set up supermarkets in India.

Plenty of observers in New Delhi seem to be terribly confused about what Wal-Mart was disclosing in its lobbying filings. Some apparently believe these filings are evidence of money paid to public officials. The BJP has even argued it points to bribes paid to Indian officials (it isn’t clear why.) In fact, these were routine filings to comply with the U.S. Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995. Companies must periodically declare what they’ve spent to fund their lobbying operations in Washington – their own operations. It isn’t a list of money they’ve paid to public officials.

Wal-Mart says it is being unfairly targeted. “Under U.S. law, on a quarterly basis, all companies which meet certain time and expenses thresholds, are required to disclose issues and expenditures spent in connection with contacts with the United States Government, including staffing cost, association dues, and payments to consultants,” the company said in a statement. “This is not unique to Walmart.”

Another key misunderstanding is that all the money Wal-Mart spent in recent years on lobbying ($24 million) went to its India agenda. (See, for example, this Indian newspaper headline. That is false. The truth is that big companies generally lobby on a host of matters at the same time. And Wal-Mart was no exception.

Take a look, for example, at the retailer’s disclosure report for the third quarter of 2012, which declared $1.65 million of lobbying expenses. The company does say that its lobbying included “discussions related to FDI in India.” But that was just one of dozens of issues listed in a 19-page document that have nothing to do with India, including local food sourcing, corporate tax reform, waste disposal, minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo, supply-chain security issues, women’s empowerment, the American Jobs Act, the Marketplace Fairness Act and the Marketplace Equity Act.

A Washington lobbyist familiar with India issues said many of these other policy issues were a far larger part of Wal-Mart’s lobbying efforts than FDI in India. “If I were to look at all the things they’re interested in, this doesn’t make the top 100,” the lobbyist said of the company’s advocacy efforts in Washington.

Besides its in-house lobbying efforts, Wal-Mart has hired at least 17 outside lobbying firms in Washington in recent years, including Bryan Cave LLP, Capitol Counsel LLC, Patton Boggs LLP, Podesta Group Inc. and Ulman Public Policy & Federal Relations, lobbying records show. But FDI in India wasn’t listed as a lobbying issue in any of their most recent filings.

The sudden controversy over lobbying is partly political and partly cultural: In India, in an era of rampant corruption in government and industry, the word “lobbying” has been virtually equated with bribery in some quarters. In the U.S., there’s a long tradition of interest groups from all over the political spectrum openly jockeying for influence and pushing their agendas. Even the toughest critics of Washington’s power brokers don’t assume every lobbyist is paying someone off, though there have been some well-documented, high-profile instances of corruption.

In general, “lobbying” in the U.S. means meeting with officials and making your case to them. Sure, there’s certainly a vibrant debate in the U.S. over how much influence big companies should have because of their access to politicians and political donations their employees have made to one party or the other. The disclosure forms at least offer some transparency, so Americans can see which companies are trying to influence policy and which lobbyists are working for them.

Amol is an India Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. Follow him on Twitter @AmolSharmaWsj.

About India Real Time

India Real Time offers analysis and insights into the broad range of developments in business, markets, the economy, politics, culture, sports, and entertainment that take place every single day in the world’s largest democracy. Regular posts from Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires reporters around the country provide a unique take on the main stories in the news, shed light on what else mattered and why, and give global readers a snapshot of what Indians have been talking about all week. You can contact the editors at indiarealtime(at)wsj(dot)com.